Trimmed or Minimum Size

[Leon]

Couple strokes of a finger and that factory fresh isn't factory fresh any longer. Trimming is usually apparent to me after I acquire the card. And I think we have all heard or seen (many) stories of a TRM going to a numerical grade on resubmission.

Originally Posted by Yastrzemski Sports

Compare the color of the edges. A trimmed card will Have fresh - not aged cardboard on the outside as it has been cut away. Also the straightness of the cut. It is extremely difficult to do a good job trimming a card. Look for jagged or uneven cuts or an edge or border that isn't straight. Put the edge against a flat surface and see if it is flush. Usually a minimum size card will be miscut one way Side to side or up and down - not both. But if someone did a really good job trimming you may not be able to tell the difference.

[Snapolit1]

Cards made 75 or 100 years ago were't made in a NASA or MIT laboratory. Isn't it a little absurd to believe they were all exactly the same size coming out of some little printing room somewhere? I always wonder when someone says a card is trimmed whether maybe it was just printed/cut lousy in the first place. Obviously no way to tell that.

[Fred]

Here's a lesson to be learned. To buy a bulk lot of rookies or not....

In the 80's, a lot of uncut sheets from the major card makers were obtained by people that cut the sheets or had them cut to get the "rookie" cards. A lot of those rookie cards were sold in huge lots so when they're stacked they all look absolutely perfect in size (relative to each other). However, yes there's a but here, in some cases if you compared one of those cards to a card from a pack, it could have been smidge narrow or short. If you sent the card in for grading it would be apparent to the grader that the card was a smidge narrow or short but not to you because you purchased a stack of them that were all uniform in size. The card would be returned as trimmed from PSA.